


Cold Blooded

by Lafeae



Series: Whump/Hurt/Comfort challenge [7]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Violence, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Near Death Experiences, One-Sided Attraction, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 09:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17680943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafeae/pseuds/Lafeae
Summary: “Tell me, dearheart,” Pegasus said softly. He leaned on the side of the table as an entranced Yami caressed Kaiba’s skin. “Do you really wish to sin with this man? He won’t have you once he wakes up. It will be more battles and scars. If you want him, take him. You have been granted that gift.”Kaiba, a vampire hunter, has finally met his match to a lustful Yami.—Prideshipping, vampire AU





	Cold Blooded

**Author's Note:**

> For Jenicorn for the prompt ‘Bleeding Out’. Vampire was fun!

Shadows danced between the snow flakes, and they had been all night.

The hairs on the back of Kaiba’s neck stood up, and he pivoted at the sound of snow crunching behind him. His rapier whistled from his hip through the air, narrowly missing the blurry shadow that passed by.

Not a shadow. Not a man, either.

Staying grounded on this mission was the only way to keep a level head. The bitter whip of the wind was maddening enough without a vampire dancing around him, using the trees as a hiding place.

He bunched his coat closer to his chin and slipped his hand beneath the lapel, gripping a heated cloth that had quickly lost its warmth. He would make it through this frigid winter, but Yami wouldn’t. The gangly, red-eyed creature had made a mock of him for the last time.

The wind settled. Kaiba’s hand fell to his side, and he raised the rapier while he took the winding path towards a ramshackle cottage, almost torn sideways by the fierce north wind. Up until several years ago, it was a trader’s outpost. There were still remnants of display posts out from where the furs would hang for sale, though now various woodland creatures hung by their tails or legs, gutted and bled dry—rations for a hungry vampire.

Kaiba had come back to this shack again and again. It was, at best, a rendezvous point for the little coven of vampires who were somewhere in Domino Valley. It wasn’t a nest, but he had clues. Blood. Clothes. Tracks. Archaic symbols on painted on the wall with a finger; his finger, no doubt, though he had no idea what they said. They were so old that he found little knowledge of them in his ancient tomes.

It was the perfect place for a set-up. There was very little time, though.

Kaiba sprinted towards the shack, kicking himself to the side as a snow bank flew towards him, a long skid of tracks giving him an idea of which way the vampire was heading. He jumped over a fire pit and dug his feet into ground, turning sharply, just in time to hear talons clang against the broadside of his rapier.

“Show yourself, you coward!”

The wind ate his voice.

He slashed through the snow flakes, drawing up his guard as a spitter of snow skidded in front of him. He saw a flash of red, a glitter of gold, before he was slammed through the front gate of the shack. His back ached, and his skin cried as the wet snow seeped through the wool.

No time.

Kaiba rolled out of the way of a sharp attack and grounded the tip of his sword to block another. Sparks flew from the blade. He back-stepped, parried, and thrust forward fast enough to cut through clothe.

“Say any last words now. I’ve figured out your patterns, your speed. You’re done for, Yami.”

A flurry of attacks were quickly countered, and he used the soft movement of shadows, snow, and flakes to catch the edges of the colourful vampire. He stood out against white snow, though Kaiba had rarely caught his slender face or petite build. A centuries old creature, tiny as the persons of old. He was a teen when he turned, Kaiba deduced, though only just.

The air went quiet.

Kaiba kept the rapier up as he backed towards the shack, his opposite hand pulling back his coattail and caressing the handle of the Queen Anne pistol. There was one shot in it, with another reload on his waist, but if he missed the first shot—

“Nngh!”

Something sharp dug into his shoulder and pushed him forward. He stumbled to the side, holding the sword out before he crashed. Warm blood seeped out of a wound just below his collar. Shit.

The rapier was lifted in time to block, though a second strike hit his leg above the knee. The fingers tore into him like hot irons, searing his flesh and blinding him.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Blood poured from each wound like his veins were filled with steamed water, warming his chest and thigh, than the hot blood of a man throbbing with fear. This was terrible. Exciting, but terrible. Something had been severed, and he knew it wouldn’t be staved off by his hand at his neck.

Scrambling to the door, Kaiba burst into the small cottage, overturning a small table as he dragged himself towards the fireplace. Gentle embers floated from it, inviting him to sit on the rug and have a chat over tea.

Blood had seeped through his long johns and filled his boot, squashing between his toes. It hadn’t taken long for him to go bleary eyed. The long arteries in his neck and leg, were severed. Else he wouldn’t have a glove so slick with blood.

His wavering grip painted the mantel with blood as he steadied himself.

“Am I appetising to you yet?” Kaiba asked.

The rapier fell from his hand, and he turned to thaw his back on the fire. This was where he died. At the hands of a rival, a nemesis, a face he only saw in his dreams with luscious lips and long lashes. All these creatures were teases. Stronger men had been felled by their charm, the evil sirens.

“I’ll take you with me,” Kaiba whispered.

His hand fell from his neck, arm heavy. The room was spinning. Yami’s lithe form sauntered towards him. In the glow of the fire, his skin was sun-kissed. Almost a Moor, but not quite. An ancient vampire who grew up on the banks of the Euphrates or the Nile. This cold didn’t suit him, and it only brought up more questions than it answered.

A step forward. Blood spattered on the floor, weakly squirting from the wound in his knee. One hand had the pistol, the other had an orb of holy water, though the whole glass had turned red. Was it so holy anymore, with his blood dripping through the cork? He ripped it off with his teeth, tonguing the copper soaked into pores, the rim, before splashing a line in front of him.

Yami walked through it.

The backs of his legs should have been burning from the fire, but they were ice cold. He had no more blood in him than the gutted rabbit or muskrat outside.

“I will take you with me, Yami.”

The vampire smiled. “You think so?”

“I know so. And I know you.” The red-eyes gleamed, softening as Kaiba’s knees buckled beneath him. “You’re ruthless.”

“I am not.”

“You’ve made others suffer.”

“I have not.”

Yami bent over inches from Kaiba’s face. “You play games with your prey. I have news for you—I like games!”

The water orb was shattered on the ground in lieu of grabbing a dagger from his side. Plunge it into the shoulder of the vampire, blast him with the pistol.

Kaiba’s wrist was caught. Too slow, he assumed. His vision was fading to nothing, and his breath was so heavy he was about to swallow his tongue. The touch was gentle, dragging his arm down and squeezing just right against his bone to make the dagger clatter on the floor.

“Sleep,” Yami commanded.

“...never.”

“A spiteful hunter.” Yami chuckled and let Kaiba’s wrist go. The blood now trickled, all of it puddled beneath him. “You smell very sweet for such a bitter man. Tell me your name, hunter. These games have been fun.”

“Kaiba. Seto Kaiba.”

Plump lips upturned. “Sleep, Kaiba.”

Every fibre of Kaiba’s being protested the command. No vampire would charm him into submission. But the blood loss made his head frothy, and the fireplace had warmed him to sleep.

—

Yami’s hands rested on the sides of Kaiba’s face once he slipped unconsciousness. The blood was so sweet smelling, but he had to resist. There was fresh rabbit waiting for him below.

Carefully, he hoisted Kaiba up and walked him into the cellar of the shack. The stone stairs led into deep, damp catacombs crawling with all manner of spindly creatures that skittered as he walked through.

Kaiba’s heart was faint in his chest. His breath was shallow.

“You’ve brought a friend,” a light voice called when he reached an inner chamber.

“I have.”

“Your hunter friend?” From the corner, Yami saw the silver-haired man leaning casually, a goblet of wine clutched between his fingers. He gutted gently. “He’s bleeding all over the nice carpets.”

“He’s dying.”

“Oh ho! You finally followed my advice, dearheart. Hit him where it hurts.” Yami sighed and laid Kaiba on a table in the centre of the room. More gentle tutting. “We eat there, you know.”

Yami shredded through Kaiba’s bloodstained clothes, opening the layers of coats and shallow leather armour on his chest. His entire side was dyed red. “Help me, Pegasus.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You made me do this.”

“You were so into him!” Pegasus trilled. “Tell me, did you get his name?”

Yami pressed his fingers into the wound on Kaiba’s neck. “Seto Kaiba.”

Pegasus gulped down the rest of the wine. He stood, meandering around the room and reaching a small chest, digging through it. “Mm. Gozaburo’s ward. He did seem to have quite a good play style. He’s very even with you...”

“Yes.”

“You seem smitten,” Pegasus said. Yami scoffed. “Ah, ah, ah, I know love when I see it. The question is, does this Kaiba-boy love you back?”

“He’s a hunter.”

Pegasus shrugged. He brought surgery tools over, holding them hostage. “You don’t plan on turning him though, do you?” Yami was silent, feeling the threaded heartbeat in the brunet’s neck. “What is it that you like so much about him? It can’t possibly be his obsessiveness...ah, but maybe it is. He follows you like a lost little dog.”

“I get no peace.”

“You mourn when he rests.”

Yami frowned. “Give me the sutures.”

The box was set down. “Why not simply turn him, hm? He’ll be with us then. You can have him as a little pet to call your own. You haven’t had one of those since, mm, you spoke of a priest once. How strange, the types you fall in with. Those that will be the death of you.”

“That was years before.”

“But it’s true. First a priest, now a hunter.”

They were quick to work on Kaiba’s wounds, sewing the gross, purple marks and binding them in hopes they wouldn’t bleed. Yami kept his chest exposed, his fingers dancing over the sinews of Kaiba’s chest and ribs. Every feature was the same as his old love; his loyal, challenging priest. The brown hair, the deep blue eyes, the sharp jaw. All but his skin, not formed under Ra’s benevolent light. But this was a treacherous and cold place.

“Tell me, dearheart,” Pegasus said softly. He leaned on the side of the table as an entranced Yami caressed Kaiba’s skin. “Do you really wish to sin with this man? He won’t have you once he wakes up. It will be more battles and scars. If you want him, take him. You have been granted that gift.”

“He’d never forgive me.”

“He’d have plenty of time to consider it,” Pegasus said flippantly. Blood began seeping through the bindings, and Yami scowled. “You may not have a choice. Either you turn him, or he dies on you again.”

“This is your fault.”

Bubbly laughter escaped Pegasus. “Perhaps. But...I’m so sick of seeing you sad. Go on, dearheart. Change him.”

As Yami leaned down, Kaiba’s eyes opened. Clear and blue and deep, both knowing and aware despite his state. It took all of Yami’s will not to break as he took Kaiba’s hand and squeezed, his teeth brushing the blood-soaked skin on Kaiba’s neck and murmured, “I’m sorry, Set...Seto. May your God forgive me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Anyways, tell me what you think! You want a whump or hurt/comfort, hit me up on tumblr @lafeae, I still have bingo board spots!


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